One of the side effects of many urological procedures is formation of blood clots in the urine within the bladder. Typically after urological procedures the patient will be fitted with a catheter to facilitate bladder drainage. Clots forming in the urine within the bladder tend to clog the inlet orifice for a catheter thereby preventing effective voiding of the bladder. This is a particular problem subsequent to urological procedures such as transectional prostatectomies, radial prostatectomies and nephrolithotomies.
Magnetic coupling in surgical devices is known, being disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,609,602. However, '602 is concerned with a magnetic couple which limits rotation of one element when driven by a second element, incorporating a mechanical stop for the first element allegedly to produce high frequency oscillations in one of the magnetically coupled pair of elements.